Reviews from various genres, read at the speed of light.

Pale Demon

Previous book here. After reading it, I honestly wasn't feeling too revved up to read the next book, which is why it's taken me a few years to get around to it. But maybe it's the time off, or maybe the plot just got better, but I liked this one better.

Is Rachel Morgan a demon? That's the question behind the entire plot of this book, most of which is a road trip. You see, Rachel has had all kinds of crap coming at her from the coven of ethical standards for being a black witch who does demon magic. And for being a witch who's had her genetics monkeyed with as a child to save her from a deadly disease...which has clued in a few folks to figuring out that witches originally sprung from demons. Since the powers that be of high witchdom totally disdain black magic and demons and the like, Rachel is up shit creek.Rachel has been summoned to a coven conference in San Francisco (note that she lives in Ohio) to plead her case. Rachel thinks she'll get off the hook, but everyone else pretty much thinks it's a lost cause. At worst, she'll be declared a demon and be trapped in the ever-afrer, away from the sun and her friends forever. But Rachel can't think about that now. She's distracted by her ongoing feud-y drama with Trent, who also needs to go to the West Coast (in his case, Seattle) for some kind of elf quest. For which he has Reasons...of which he won't say. But since his usual bodyguard can't leave his pregnant girlfriend, Trent needs someone along who can keep the minions hired by his ex-fiancee's family from killing him along the way. Since neither of them can fly there-- Trent due to Elf Quest Reasons* and Rachel because they won't allow her on a plane--they need to drive across the country. Naturally there's assassins. And strange pixiess trying to make off with Jenks. And the most friendly of the coven members, Vivian, along to track Rachel's activities.

Oh yeah, and did I mention that Trent freaking SUMMONED THE WORLD'S WORST DEMON EVER? Oh yes, he did. An annoying daywalker demon named Ku'Sox (I hate the name, to be honest) who's the product of a genetic experiment that makes him fairly similar to Rachel. Except with more powers and age and insanity, of course. Naturally he's interested in Rachel and her demon mentor Al, and especially in causing some shit. Also, he totally eats people. Rachel's having to use black magic to fight him off--and Vivian's white magic doesn't do jack shit to stop him. This makes the point to Vivian that Rachel and the use of black magic aren't all bad, but can they convince everyone else? Good luck with that... I was getting extremely fed up with Oliver (other coven member, biggest asshole of the bunch) in this book and just wanted him to shut the hell up already. What a crazy bigot.

I was really annoyed with Rachel's stupidity in the last book. While there were moments of that here and there-- I was feeling really annoyed by her whomping denial that she'd be allowed on an airplane-- she wasn't as bad with the dumb this go-round, and I appreciated that. This is also the book where she finally gets over her denial, which was driving me crazy. She finally realized what she is and accepts it, and as far as I was concerned, this was actually the best part of the novel. But it's spoilery, so I'll be moving that part below the spoiler cut.** I'll just say on the demon side, I was actually rather liking Al and Newt--Newt in particular seems more sane, and even perhaps more mentor-y/motherly towards Rachel. I wanted to see more of that.

As for Rachel's love life, Pierce is still in the book, but frankly, I think he's kind of working his way out of Rachel's affections. As well he should be. His behavior here is...dicey. When it comes to the other men in Rachel's life, well... that'll be going below the spoiler space too.*** As for Ivy, she is still pretty quietly used in this book, as she was in the last one. There's one brief, shining moment where she says farewell to Rachel before the trial that kind of breaks your heart a little and makes you worry about the state of their relationship...but I suspect things are okay by the end.

I'll give this one three and a half stars. I rather enjoyed it. Sure, there's a bit of blockheadedness, and Oliver really needs to shut the hell up, and the ending felt a bit anticlimactic (see below), but overall I liked it a lot better. I think I"ll go read the next book a little sooner than I thought.

Spoiler space

***********

* Apparently he knocked up Ellasbeth ages ago, didn't mention it, and now he's abducting their baby. Am I the only one who thought, "Hey, I thought she was rather a bitch too, but you're still stealing a 3-month old from her mother? That's kinda asshole unless she's an abuser or something."

** The best part of the book, for me, was when Rachel's been deemed a demon and banished to the ever-after, presumably for forever. Trent is involved with this--it seems to be All Part Of His Plan, as he slips her some curse to try to do in Ku'Sox-- but Rachel continues to be rather "yaaaar Trent traitor argggh!" even though by now it seems kind of settled that he's on her side on some level. Geez, guys.

But what I really liked was Rachel moving into the ever-after with Al, going out to dinner, and finally being tested to see if she's a real demon or not. Can she create an entire environment out of a memory? It's something only female demons can do--and since there's only one female demon left and she's not in the mood, nobody's had a new one in a while. Rachel does a bang-up job recreating the Petrified Forest...and suddenly she's not only an official demon, but a big smash hit with people vying for her services. I actually wanted to see how that would play out, because I could see Rachel making herself some big demon bucks and even redeeming Al some. Maybe it'd be like in the Dresden Files series, with Rachel starting a whole new life (which she may not want but is having anyway) a la the end of Ghost Story.

But...nooooo.... by the end of the book Rachel's back on terra firma, having been temporarily killed and brought back by Trent--rather heroic of him, there. And after all of that feuding crap that's gone on with them forever-- you know, one way or another I am kinda over that-- it was nice to finally see them kiss, for whatever reason. I think it's fair that Trent gave her a choice-- she could use her demon magic/ley line power and out herself as being a live demon, or she could keep his suppressive jewelry, stay presumed dead in the ever-after and stay with her friends. It seems like a slam dunk choice for Rachel, and mostly it is, but she seems to regret it some. And not only because as a day-walking demon, she has nobody technically after her, but also has zero legal protection and if anyone goes after her now, she's weakened by not being able to access all of her magic. I can't say I think that state of affairs will last for long...

*** Who the hell do you root for Rachel to get involved with in this series at this point? Definitely not Pierce. But making out with Al? Uh.... I don't even know what to make of that special moment. I really don't.

As for Trent, I suppose he's the best of the lot. I kind of enjoyed their kiss, but fuck if I know if he's someone she should get romantic with or not at this point. Either way, it seems to be a horrible bad sign if Rachel finds you sexually attractive, so... hell, I dunno.